Passionate about IP! Since June 2003 the IPKat has covered copyright, patent, trade mark, info-tech, privacy and confidentiality issues from a mainly UK and European perspective. The team is Neil J. Wilkof, Annsley Merelle Ward, Darren Smyth, Nicola Searle, Eleonora Rosati, David Brophy, Alberto Bellan and Merpel, with contributions from Mark Schweizer. You're welcome to read, post comments and participate. You can email the Kats here

From October 2016 to March 2017 the team is joined by Guest Kats Rosie Burbidge and Eibhlin Vardy, and by InternKats Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo, Tian Lu and Hayleigh Bosher.

Monday, 29 December 2014

It's now exactly half a year since the IPKat instituted its weekly "Never too late" posts, kindly compiled by Katfriend Alberto Bellan in order to assist readers who were offline or on holiday during the previous week by providing a short note on each of this weblog's substantive blogposts together with a link, to save readers the toil of reading all the way through a large number of blogposts. In this, the 26th round-up, Alberto records the following:

Katfriends
and IP enthusiasts David Pellisé and Juan Carlos Quero explain a
revolutionary trade mark decision from the Spanish Supreme Court. Overcoming a
traditional idea peculiar to Spanish trade mark law, that court
eventually puts an end to the concept of trade marks giving its owner
the (positive) right to use the sign protected thereby.

Vestergaard
Fransen S/A & others v Bestnet Europe Ltd and others is a
case that simply refuses to go away, writes Jeremy. After a number of earlier decisions
[on which see earlier Katposts here, here,
and here]this breach of confidence litigation regarding
mosquito nets provides for another fresh
ruling, this time on costs of an inquiry on damage compensation and usability
of “without prejudice” communications.

Jeremy sinks his paws into Unilever Plc v Société
des Produits Nestlé SA, a trade mark decision of Dermot Doyle, on
behalf of the Controller of the Irish Patents Office. The decision sees a
slogan, ‘RANDOM ACTS OF HAPPINESS’, which encountered another slogan ‘LET YOUR RANDOM
SIDE OUT’ and the trade mark ‘RANDOMS’ on its way to the Irish Trade Mark
Register. Could those slogans live side by side, or did one prevail over the other?

Over
the past month, this weblog has hosted news and developments of reports of
unrest among the workers at the European Patent Office (EPO). The unrest is
not, as might have been supposed, only at the level of the Examiners and
regular employees, but even within the exalted ranks of the Boards of Appeal
and Enlarged Board. Since news does not develop in a neat and tidy
manner, the IPKat has asked Merpel to review the recent events and to summarize
them in the brief summary timeline that you may find in this post.

Jeremy reports
about Jarden Consumer Solutions (Europe) Ltd v SEB SA & Another [2014] EWCA Civ 1629, a Court of Appeal for England and Wales ruling on a
patented electrical appliance for the dry frying of food.
In his earlier guest-post on the case [here], Paul England described it as “a textbook
obviousness and infringement analysis, and one that would serve as a case study
in patent courses for the next few years”. But did the Court of Appeal agree?

Medical
Innovations Ltd v Eakins and others is a Chancery
Division, England and Wales decision delivered by Richard Meade QC. As Jeremy
explains, this case concerns breach of database rights, misuse of confidential
information and breach of contract, all coming from a former employee changing
his job.

The
whole dynamics of technology transfer between Western companies and Chinese
enterprises rests on the assumption that China remains eager to import Western
technology and products. What is new, however, is the emergence of early signs
that this assumption may not be entirely correct, writes Neil.

The
European Copyright Society (ECS) sent Commissioner for Digital
Economy and Society, Günther Oettinger, a letter
shortly before
the holidays. The subject-line? "Unification of copyright law",
explains Eleonora -- who wrote a book on that
very subject a couple of years ago.

Katfriend Suleman Ali (Holly
IP) review Biotechnology and Intellectual Property Rights. Legal and
Social Implications, by Kshitij Kumar Singh. Is it a good reading for your
seasonal holiday? Find it out in this post.

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